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swords and serpents "end of game "


broncoman

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If you are talking NES, yeah I beat it years ago, as I recall the end was mega weak (about as good as the "intro") You get a few screens in your view window of the final boss defeated and a meek celebration and that is about it.

 

The game is so-so in terms of fun, you really have to be engrossed by it to enjoy it (cause if you stop and restart playing, entering all of those damned passwords gets annoying), and the satisfaction comes more from finishing it than from any kind of "ending."

 

I have it pretty completely mapped and complete items lists and all, if I get time this weekend I'll beat it again and let you know. Sorry, no digital camera, so I won't be able to supply pics. :sad:

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  • 4 years later...
Heh, I loved that game!

That was my favorite game for the old Intellivision!

I am pretty sure I beat it back in the early 80's, but, I can't remember if there was much of an ending!?

 

I hope someone here knows, because I would like to know too.

Try this Google post from 1998:

 

S&S Ending

 

I was frustrated by the ending as well, as you'll read in that post.

 

I know this is very late late info but I decided to post this for anyone who come across this tread looking for the final answer to that age old question.

I found this article while researching the game and found very funny --the reaction the original programer got from two desparate gamers. I can't really blame them. I might have gotten PO'ed myself if I spent my hard earned money as a kid on a game where the serpent's big secret were just the programer's initials :!:

 

It would be nice if a 2600 version of S&S were homebrewed with an actual dramatic endding!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

ASK THE BLUE SKY RANGERS!

 

Gary writes:

 

swords.gifHey, I played Imagic's Swords & Serpents a lot, I mean really a lot. Was there an end to the game? All we ever found were 3 initials inside the dragons lair, that we assumed were the initials of the guy who wrote the game. Was that it? We always wonder if we missed something.

 

Thanks for any closure.

 

Brian P. Dougherty, creator of Swords & Serpents, tells us:

 

dougherty.jpg post-7623-1163714532_thumb.jpgYes, that was it.

 

Brian says that in 1982, a few months after the game was released, he was awakened by a phone call in the middle of the night. Two teenage boys were on the line. They had been playing Swords & Serpents for days on end, had worked their way repeatedly to the final level, but couldn't figure out how to defeat the dragon.

 

Brian's name was listed in the instructions, so the frustrated duo called information for Mountain View, California, home of Imagic, and asked if there was a Brian P. Dougherty listed. Getting the number, they called him immediately and begged for the secret of killing the dragon.

 

Sleepily, Brian confessed to them that there was no way to kill the dragon. He had run out of room in the cartridge, so there was no climactic battle, just uncovering the "treasure": his initials.

 

Brian says there were a few seconds of silence on the line, then the teenagers let loose with a string of obscenities. They called him every name in the book, then hung up.

 

Brian now has an unlisted number.

Edited by espire8
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Does anyone know if there is a relationship between the NES and Intellivision Swords and Serpents games? I know they were by different companies, but couldn't help but notice the same titles. They both are RPG games and deal with a dragon and collecting treasures. Did somone at Interplay/Acclaim see the original Imagic version and decide to create one on the NES?

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  • 7 years later...

OK, so I know this is an old thread, but wanted to put in my 2¢ with my experience with Intellivision Swords & Serpents.

 

My Dad and I would play Swords & Serpents in the evenings after dinner for hours - him as the white knight and myself as the wizard. Finally after what seemed like months - I was 9 or 10 at the time - we got to the final level with the dragon! But then we found out that there was only some treasure to pick up, and the initials "BPD", but you couldn't actually fight or defeat the dragon at all, no matter what we tried.
So, I wrote a letter to Imagic, asking how to defeat the dragon, like the scene in the catalog with the knight fighting the dragon! Unfortunately, I don't have the original letter I sent, but my Dad did keep the letter I got in return.
The personal response at the bottom of the letter, from Kathleen Boothe, answered the question: "To answer your question about the picture in the catalog: that picture is what was originally planned, however due to limited memory in the game system the game designer, Mr. [brian P] Dougherty, was unable to include it in the game. In fact, it was so limited that there was no way to even program a fight between the Knight and the Serpent and that is why there is no way to kill the serpent."

post-38734-0-17437200-1407083526_thumb.jpg

post-38734-0-55339900-1407084406_thumb.jpg

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OK, so I know this is an old thread, but wanted to put in my 2¢ with my experience with Intellivision Swords & Serpents.

 

My Dad and I would play Swords & Serpents in the evenings after dinner for hours - him as the white knight and myself as the wizard. Finally after what seemed like months - I was 9 or 10 at the time - we got to the final level with the dragon! But then we found out that there was only some treasure to pick up, and the initials "BPD", but you couldn't actually fight or defeat the dragon at all, no matter what we tried.
So, I wrote a letter to Imagic, asking how to defeat the dragon, like the scene in the catalog with the knight fighting the dragon! Unfortunately, I don't have the original letter I sent, but my Dad did keep the letter I got in return.
The personal response at the bottom of the letter, from Kathleen Boothe, answered the question: "To answer your question about the picture in the catalog: that picture is what was originally planned, however due to limited memory in the game system the game designer, Mr. [brian P] Dougherty, was unable to include it in the game. In fact, it was so limited that there was no way to even program a fight between the Knight and the Serpent and that is why there is no way to kill the serpent."

 

Wow! that is exactly what happened to me. what a dissapointment that was at the time. :(

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This sounds like so much bullshit. Was this the same game that had the scroll reading "Those who read this are doomed?" If you read it (and how would you know not to?) you'd be trapped in a tiny, inescapable room until you reset. I'm guessing the many frustrations in this game had as much to do with good old fashioned sadism as memory limitations.

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OK, so I know this is an old thread, but wanted to put in my 2¢ with my experience with Intellivision Swords & Serpents.

 

My Dad and I would play Swords & Serpents in the evenings after dinner for hours - him as the white knight and myself as the wizard. Finally after what seemed like months - I was 9 or 10 at the time - we got to the final level with the dragon! But then we found out that there was only some treasure to pick up, and the initials "BPD", but you couldn't actually fight or defeat the dragon at all, no matter what we tried.
So, I wrote a letter to Imagic, asking how to defeat the dragon, like the scene in the catalog with the knight fighting the dragon! Unfortunately, I don't have the original letter I sent, but my Dad did keep the letter I got in return.
The personal response at the bottom of the letter, from Kathleen Boothe, answered the question: "To answer your question about the picture in the catalog: that picture is what was originally planned, however due to limited memory in the game system the game designer, Mr. [brian P] Dougherty, was unable to include it in the game. In fact, it was so limited that there was no way to even program a fight between the Knight and the Serpent and that is why there is no way to kill the serpent."

 

That letter makes the bad game ending not so bad after all! ;-)

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My best friend had an Intellivision and I had an Atari when I was a kid. We played Swords and Serpents for days until we reached the Dragon. We couldn't figure out how to make him fight and I don't recall even seeing the initials. I wish we would have contacted Imagic. Instead I think we just moved on to the next game.

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  • 2 months later...

This sounds like so much bullshit. Was this the same game that had the scroll reading "Those who read this are doomed?" If you read it (and how would you know not to?) you'd be trapped in a tiny, inescapable room until you reset. I'm guessing the many frustrations in this game had as much to do with good old fashioned sadism as memory limitations.

 

IIRC the Intellivision scroll would sometimes read:

 

 

To read this scroll is a fool's folly.

 

That would take you to the boxed in room but Nilrem may have a spell to destroy the wall.

 

Other scrolls were either spells, I think, or paired teleports:

 

 

Ye read, ye move.

 

Funny, I haven't thought about this for 30 years. Lover the site, guys. :)

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